Johor Bahru Prison - The Prison Complex

The Prison Complex

The Johor Bahru Prison was designed by the then sultan, Sultan Ibrahim ibni Almarhum Sultan Abu Bakar ibni Almarhum Daeng Ibrahim, who visited the prisons in Shanghai and Osaka to study the physical condition and design of their prisons. The building contract was awarded to a prominent Chinese building contractor, Wong Ah Fook, on April 16, 1882.

The original built-in area was 400 feet (120 m) square (15,000 m²), with a capacity of 200 inmates. There were then only two accommodation blocks for inmates, two training workshops, a kitchen, a toilet block, a clinic and an administrative office.

With the pressing need to increase its capacity over the years, buildings were added, and existing ones, renovated. The number of accommodation blocks for inmates gradually increased to ten, with a capacity of 1,500 inmates. The number of training workshops had also increased to five. Added too, were additional facilities and amenities, which included a family visiting area, a counselling clinic, a welfare officer's room, and a praying room (surau). The 4.5 acre (18,000 m²) compound, enclosed by a 20 feet (6 m) high wall, remained as it was in 1883. The area surrounding the prison had been fully developed, with staff quarters, occupying 9.4 acres (38,000 m²). Thus, every available space within the compound had to be fully utilized. Buildings were packed so close to each other, that one wonders whether fire regulations had been infringed. Even so, inmates had to be crammed up to seven or eight to a cell, when these were originally designed for three.